Abstract: Dr. Monroe’s dissertation research explored the political ecology of the Egyptian colonial frontier in Lower Nubia.  She began with an investigation of the long-term relationship between climate change and cattle pastoralism in northeastern Africa and followed with a zooarchaeological analysis of the excavated cattle remains left by the Egyptians of Askut (c. 1850 – 1550 BC), one of several large military garrisons built to monitor and control pharaonic Egypt’s southern borders.  Her questions were largely focused on the local herders that provided cattle to the Second Cataract Forts, namely, the pastoralist Nubian C-Group, the previous occupants of the territories that were occupied by Egyptian forces. C-Group people represented a long tradition of non-state pastoralist groups who shaped the political ecology of borderlands between pharaonic Egypt and Kerma.  Dr. Monroe used the food refuse at Askut to explore the role of livestock exchange in the interactions between Egyptian colonists and C-Group Nubians. Through time, the bones tell a story of human response to climate change, cultural fragmentation, survival, and coerced assimilation that still resonates with the socio-political circumstances of African pastoralists in present times.